The following page was designed by Oli S-B in 2004 to show what “PLANET: The Open Co-op’s dream communications system” might look like.
Bear in mind that Google Earth was not even launched until June 11, 2005, and Facebook did not exist until February 4, 2004
Components of PLANET

An easy to use Geographical Information System (GIS) style interface

A friendship network based on trust and reputation.

Start pages for any individual, group or organisation that displays their chosen news, events and other feeds.

An online accounts and payment system featuring conventional and community currencies and a ‘time bank’ for community service. Users have the facility to rate and give feedback to product/service providers.

Guides to products and services, showing ratings and reviews of both companies and products.

An online ‘Skills Exchange’ to find work and workers, which acts as the employment hub of PlaNet. It offers a wide range of skills and offers payment in conventional or local currency, acting as a source of part time jobs and low-cost services for businesses. Ratings and reviews on peoples service maintain confidence, as on eBay.

Management software specifically designed to provide stability and optimisation for all types of businesses and other organisations. Quality is maintained by feedback and peer inspection, not fear of loss of customers.

An online Swap Shop (like Freecycle ) which lists items that members no longer want and are prepared to barter, some things are even given away and collected from Swap Shop by charity.This encourages the efficient circulation of children’s clothes, books, videos, old TVs and all sorts of other products which used to be dumped in landfills. The Swap Shop employs a team to repair faulty and broken goods, It saves people money and helps them consume far fewer precious resources.
Other things we’d said we’d like to see included as part of PlaNet – back in 2004!
- Decision making tools
- Organisational support for the Collaborative Groups
- Planning and workflow (Project Management) tools
- Sign-up sheets for rotas (allocation of tasks)
- Discussion zones (e.g. IRC channels) for instant communication
- Forums for online help and support.
PLANET 2010 – Story
The following cartoon story to explain how PLANET might benefit members of The Open Co-op. Again the cartoon story was developed in 2004, but was is set in 2010.
PLANET 2017 – and beyond…
We updated the PLANET concept in January 2017, as an open source operating system for a collaborative, sustainable economy with a new series of phone-based screenshots to illustrate how the various concepts and ideas would work.
Like before, the purpose was to illustrate some of the key concepts of a collaborative economy and what it might be like to interact with this new economic system via PLANET.
PLANET was, and still is, envisioned as an open source project which is owned and controlled by its members, giving them complete control over how it works. You can see our latest thoughts at https://open.coop/planet/
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